we want to serve the world.
where it all began.
bigmoose founders, jeff and chloe, along with their family volunteered for two years at a soup kitchen for cardiff’s homeless.
“feeling like we were only really putting a plaster on the problem, we decided to open a coffee shop in cardiff city centre, looking to employ and train people that had fallen on hard times, and needed a hand up, and hopefully provide them with lifelong skills that were transferrable.
so, with very little professional coffee shop knowledge, but those buckets of enthusiasm again, and the amazing support of our growing throng of supporters we began the journey.”
“we went there twice in two days. the food was excellent, the staff very friendly and polite. i'm sure the best breakfast place in cardiff.”
“our go to spot for breakfast when we are in cardiff. great food, coffee and service and all for an important cause. what more could you ask for simply brilliant!”
the beginning of bigmoose coffee co.
a huge amount of people supported bigmoose coffee company’s dream to raise £20,000 on kickstarter, which finally closed after the seven day cut-off with £30,000, those aforementioned supporters backing the bigmoose team all the way.
the coffee shop, situated in a quiet back street in cardiff, has built a loyal following, and now boasts the title of number one coffee shop in cardiff on trip advisor, and has helped many people, with the utmost confidentiality, through homelessness, addiction, and people with criminal records, and has an extremely diverse and eclectic customer base of which we are proud.
whilst the coffee shop has grown, so has our ability to help people, and before long we discovered that lots of our staff struggled with mental health problems.
the journey continued to grow.
we sought out a therapist to help our first homeless employee, a young 20 year old, who had been sleeping rough in shelters for years since being kicked out of his home. after a few sessions he sat in our office with me and started to cry, which confused me as i thought he was doing well, so i asked him why he was crying, to which he replied, “this is the first time in my life i haven’t felt like killing myself.”
this was a pivotal moment for us to realise we needed to formally gain charitable status, so we could help more people in this situation, and not just those that we employed. so, in july 2018, we made one of the best decisions of our lives, and founded bigmoose charity, with the aim of helping people with mental health problems, which in turn reduces homelessness, and we made a big focus on the prevention of suicide.
